User talk:Brian Kurtz

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Wikification

FYI, an edit like this one to Lawrence Belmont may remove the article from Category:Wikify but it also places it into Disambiguation pages at the same time. At some point, to make the site as reader-friendly as possible, all of those disambig links should be cleaned up. The Paradox 22:38, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Weird. I wonder if it makes a difference, since the character lists are all (ideally) linked to the proper pages. --Brian Kurtz 22:40, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Actually, from what I've seen the Disambig pages have some of the worst linkage problems around. A huge number of them are using old naming systems, which means that all those subpage links are consequently wrong and new pages aren't being linked at all. Not to mention all those DC Bullet and None.jpg images that aren't showing up as Image Needed. The Paradox 22:52, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Getting rid of Jock

I see that you've marked Category:Jock/Cover Artist for deletion. Our staff template should have the ability to pull in psuedonyms, even at the category level. I haven't looked at the code yet to see what needs to be tuned up, but I would much rather have the ability to credit people under the name they used and have the staff page tie that all together than to present information that isn't entirely accurate. If the talent chooses to be credited as Jock, or Christopher Priest, or the Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man for that matter, I think we should respect that. The Paradox 09:34, 21 November 2008 (UTC)

Hey, if there's a way that the template can bring all of the names together, that would be awesome. Especially where it concerns a lot of the older Golden Age guys, who were forever using pseudonyms; Edwin Alger, Mart Dellon, etc. Though, to be fair, I fear the day that I should ever have to make a Category:Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man/Cover Artist category. --Brian Kurtz 13:03, 21 November 2008 (UTC)

Fun Fact

Superman II is on TV Land right now, at least where I am. And I have it on in the background while I'm working. Every once in awhile, in my tired stupor, I look up at the television and see General Zod. And for a second, I wonder confusedly... what is Brian Kurtz doing on TV? You're just that indelibly linked with Zod in my mind.

- Billy Arrowsmith (Talk), 04:26, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Ha ha ha! Too awesome. How's this for irony... I just now finished watching the "Zod" episode of Smallville on DVD. In fact, I'm preparing to write up the article for it even as I type this! I am the Zod! --Brian Kurtz 05:50, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Cast lists

I've noticed some problems with the removal of cast lists, which I've detailed in this addition to the category description. It's hit the Spectre in particular a few times that I know of, with one aspect or the other getting lost. The Paradox 12:02, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Good points! I try to keep an eye on the appearances list and make the necessary corrections as needed. Some slip past though. I'll have to keep an eye out for those gestalt characters. --Brian Kurtz 12:04, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Batch SW6

I'm concerned about a bunch of pages, but don't have the issues to confirm. Valor #14, Valor #15, Valor #16, Valor #17, and Valor #18. You have the Legionnaires appearing in those issues marked as Legion of Super-Heroes (Post-Zero Hour), but they're actually the very similar and immensely annoying Legion of Super-Heroes (SW6), who I am currently trying to straighten out. What confuses me the most, however, is Glorith (Post-Zero Hour). I can't figure out who that is. It lists her name on those pages as Lori. There's no actual Glorith in the Post-Zero Hour universe. But, there is a character named Lori Morning (Post-Zero Hour), who serves as sort of the Glorith equivalent, but her first appearance isn't until Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 4 #75 (Underworld Unleashed). I didn't know what to change those designations to, especially as there are already categories made for them.

Oh, and if you go back and change these, keep in mind, not all of the Legionnaires on the SW6 team are actually SW6 products, some of them just joined up afterwards. Watch out for Dragonmage, Computo, Kid Quantum, Catspaw, and Chameleon Boy.

- Billy Arrowsmith (Talk), 21:21, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Glorith is in many ways like the Time Trapper, having been revamped to take his place in post-Pocket Universe Legion lore. Her origins, originally known, became unclear, with some hints that she was a time-displaced Lori Morning and others that she was the post-somethingorother Time Trapper. Both TT and Glorith seemed to be somewhat immune to the Reality warping of the DC Universe, with at least TT showing knowledge of the Pre-COIE multiverse and it's various revamps. You might want to check out the Legion Wiki to see if they can offer any detailed insight. The Paradox 21:33, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

I friggin' hate the Legion. I can't make heads or tails of their continuity. The Valor issues you spoke of Billy, took place right around the time that they did one of their continuity hiccups. I was kinda just skimming the issues when I created those pages, and I don't have all of the chapters of that particular storyline. In truth, I was laid up in bed with a busted leg at the the time and those were the only comics within arm's reach. So yeah, basically what I'm saying is, I'm of little help at all. If I dig 'em up again I'll try to see if I can understand it a little bit better and offer some insight. Friggin' Legion. grumble grumble grumble. --Brian Kurtz 13:26, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

I don't have the Valor issues handy right at this moment. But if the pages become too controversial, perhaps we can just un-link the character listings for the nonce until such time that we can adequately confirm the identities of said characters? --Brian Kurtz 13:51, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

I hated the Legion too, Brian. But I have recently become enamored with them. I'm trying to get this whole continuity cluster&%ck uploaded and explained, so that nobody will ever have to deal with this again. I'm going to go ahead and correct those issues to mention the SW6 Legion, and I'm going to switch the Glorith in those issues to Glorith (Pre-Zero Hour). The possibility of her being Lori Morning can be addressed on her page, which will account for any confusion. In Legionnaires #17, Brainiac 5 reveals that their reality is so in flux, that towards the end of the original Legion's run, reality is just literally changing at random. There are actually some scenes where a character will be holding a conversation, and then literally change into another character mid-sentence, and nobody else even notices. It's Zero Hour's fault, really. <sigh> Zero Hour sometimes just really makes me want to cry. But I will persevere! I will track down the tie-ins, and I will make sense of this damn crossover, and so help me, I will find a way to make it understandable and presentable, and I will make it my bitch!

- Billy Arrowsmith (Talk), 16:30, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

LOL! You're a better man than I. --Brian Kurtz 16:32, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

Gotta admire anybody willing to take on COIE, the Mordruverse, Glorithverse AND Zero Hour, two different reality-altering bad guys, two millenia and three different legions of Legion (not to mention Giffen's artwork). The Paradox 19:37, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

Category:Gruesome Deaths

Can we just make the gruesome deaths go away? It was created and populated by one person on one day back in April. Other than you reverting a couple of my discreet removals, nobody else has used it. I don't like it because it's totally a personal judgement call - what's gruesome for one is run of the mill for another. (Personally I tend to think all death is gruesome, but in a matter-of-fact sort of way.) We just can't ever have a clear set of criteria, and it ends up being one person's call - in this case, literally. The Paradox 06:52, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, it is kind of subjective, and doesn't yield too much information. It's hard to justify keeping it. Though, I certainly appreciate the spirit in which it was created. Personally, I think DC has been kinda bloodthirsty with its portrayal of characters for the past six years now. I have no objection to doing away with it if nobody else does. --Brian Kurtz 13:00, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Kewl. I'll tag the category and if nobody objects in a week or two... The Paradox 20:28, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

DC Fan Fiction

Hey guys,

Just a general message for you big-time DC Admins, the founder of DC Fan Fiction wants you to know that if you run into any users who would like to create their own DC characters or comics and stuff, you're more than welcome to point them to the DC Fan Fiction wiki. (They're not having much luck generating new contributors). Didn't know if you guys knew about this option, so I'm putting it out here.

— Nathan (Peteparker) (Earth-1218) (talk • contribs • email) 15:42, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Hey, that's awesome! Occasionally, we do come across some fan-fic that we have to end up deleting. It's great that we can point these guys in a new direction to explore their creativity! --Brian Kurtz 15:44, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Very short articles v Glossary entries

As I chip away at the articles needing templates, I find myself perplexed as to how one determines what should be a Glossary entry and what should have an separate article. In fact, the entire Glossary is a bit of a mystery to me. Can you help pull back the veil? The Paradox 22:00, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

If I may, I'll chime in, and probably not answer the question. :)

In the past, I'd put anything that needed a short explanation but didn't fall under a specific template into the glossary. Like a big miscellaneous pile of short explanations for things. So that's my best interpretation of what's supposed to be there. Of course, this was long before Templates like a Concept Template came into being.

— Nathan (Peteparker) (Earth-1218) (talk • contribs • email) 22:13, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

I've always subscribed to the "User discretion" train of thought when it comes to glossary entries. So no, there's no actual rule per se, but I think there's definitely some articles that could prolly be better served as a glossary entry than a full article (Colt Revolver and Supermanium spring to mind). --Brian Kurtz 23:03, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Actually those answers do help a lot. Now that I know the history, I'm inclined to go with the Item or Vehicle template in most cases because of the built-in category magic and the auto-links to Appearances and images. The Glossary pages don't do that, do they? So there's potentially a lot of uncategorized items and such, correct? I'll also make the Notes and Trivia sections invisible if empty in the appropriate templates to reduce the clutter on those pages. The Paradox 23:25, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

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Day of Judgment

When I'm doing an event, I like to have it done as thoroughly as possible. Annoyingly, almost as if somebody else in the world actually cared about it, I can't find any of the Day of Judgment tie-ins in the back of my local store. Having personally seen to very full-looking pages for all of those crossover issues, I assume that you have read and are in possession of them. I was wondering, would you mind writing up a brief synopsis on the Day of Judgment page of events beyond the core issues? I was thinking a heading like "Around the DCU" in the history section. Something like,

Around the DCU

Superboy clashed with Etrigan, and they yadayadayada.
The Titans dealed with some shit involving Raven.
Impulse acted like a fool, as usual.
Aquaman did some fourth thing.
<insert another example here>

If this would be too much of a hassle right now, then don't worry about it. I would just like to close the books on Day of Judgment, so I can look at it, say "Yep. Our article is complete, and better than anybody else's anywhere." And then move on with my life.

- Billy Arrowsmith (Talk), 18:20, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

I don't have many of the tie-in issues, but I do have the regular mini-series. I'll see what I can do to start putting something together. --Brian Kurtz 19:42, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

Never mind, then. I have the miniseries as well. If we don't actually own the tie-ins, I'll just try to piece it together myself. It's not like this is going to be particularly in-depth. Just a little piece of bulleted centralized information. Don't worry about it, I'll get this one.

- Billy Arrowsmith (Talk), 20:46, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

Complete Issues

I'd like to nominate Firestorm #1 for inclusion.

How'd you feel about moving this out of User space and making it part of a semi-formal Quality Assessment process?

The Paradox 07:13, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Firestorm #1 it is. We can definitely make this semi-formal. Not sure how to go about doing it though. --Brian Kurtz 11:32, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Easily enough, I think.

Move it to DC Database:Quality Assessment or some similar name
Set the criteria for various article types (you've done a good job with Comics so far)
Create a space for nominations (I think two sets of eyes to go over a detailed criteria set is good), possibly linked from the Main Page or via a site header
Find some little way of acknowledging and categorizing the articles that pass muster - a gold star, a template on the talk page, something. Maybe appropriate the Featured article tag I've seen scattered about...
Consider some mid-level assessments, whether they be a letter grade like Wikipedia uses or some other system, and target them for improvement

But all the while keeping it loose and informal. Somebody works on an article and nominates it, somebody else takes a look, maybe tweaks a thing or two, and slaps a gold star on it. End of story. Readers come along and want to see the best articles we have, there's a whole category of them.

The overall goal is, of course, to get people focused on creating quality articles and not just stubs. The Paradox 12:15, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Sounds great! I say lets run with it. This ought to prompt some lively discussion as to what the quality standards should be (mine admittedly are pretty strict). --Brian Kurtz 13:01, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Not strict enough, apparently ;)

Hello, Brian Kurtz. You have new messages at DC Database talk:Quality Assessment's talk page.

Time Commander

I've noticed that he keeps on getting listed as Time Commander (New Earth) for the categorization. Actually, there are two of them. John Starr (New Earth) was killed during 52, and the current one is Sterling Fry (New Earth). Wikipedia has a pretty solid article on the character here.

- Billy Arrowsmith (Talk), 20:08, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Oh, sweet! I never even hoid of this guy. I'll have to go back and make some changes on some of the articles. --Brian Kurtz 20:56, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Year Appearances

Is there some way to bring Category:Years into the mix? Every time I look at that I get the impression of some little bywater that's out of the mainstream traffic flow. The Paradox 14:00, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Well, I just sub-catted it to years. Not sure what else we could do to un-bywater it. Any ideas? --Brian Kurtz 15:07, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

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